=== Sidebar Widgets ===
Contributors: skeltoac, mdawaffe
Tags: widget, customization, theme
Requires at least: 2.1
Tested up to: 2.1.3
Stable Tag: 1.2.1
Adds "Sidebar Widgets" panel under Presentation menu
== Description ==
It's called Sidebar Widgets because it allows you to move things (widgets)
around, in and out of your sidebar. A widget is something that you might want
on your sidebar, such as a category list or the most recent comments or a link
to your admin pages. There is even a widget that lets you type whatever you
want in the sidebar, such as some HTML or Javascript code.
*This plugin is **NOT** required for WordPress 2.2*
== Installation ==
If you are using WordPress version 2.2 or later, you do not need to install this
plugin; WordPress itself already includes these features.
First you have to put the files where they belong. We recommend putting all of
the php script files in wp-content/plugins/widgets and keeping any new widget
plugins there unless another location is specified.
Here it is in graphic form:
`
- wp-content
- plugins
- widgets
| delicious.php
| gsearch.php
| rss.png
| widgets.php
- themes
- classic
| functions.php (optional)
\ sidebar.php (optional)
- default
| functions.php (optional)
\ sidebar.php (optional)
`
It will also work if you store the RSS icon in wp-includes/images. It's pretty
flexible.
Installing the plugin files isn't enough, however. You must have a theme that
supports sidebar widgets. To help you with that, we've included updated files
for the WordPress 2.0 Default Theme (Kubrick) and the Classic theme. There are
many themes that rely on Classic's script files, so it's probably a good idea to
install the new Classic files unless you have modified the theme yourself.
Don't forget to activate the Widgets plugin.
== Frequently Asked Questions ==
= I have installed and activated the plugin. Now how do I use it? =
Assuming you chose the Kubrick theme, you should now see a "Sidebar Widgets"
item in the Presentation menu. This gives you a screen with two columns: a
palette and a sidebar. The palette has all of the available widgets and the
other column represents your sidebar. You can drag the widgets between the
columns to create the exact combination that pleases you and your visitors.
If you find that the widgets are not draggable, there are two likely causes:
you installed the scriptaculous files in the wrong place, or your web browser
is not running the scripts.
Some of the widgets will have a little icon on the right side of the draggable
widget device. Click that icon to reveal that widget's options. Click the X or
the area outside the options box to return to the widget page. Your options are
not saved until you click "Save changes" on the widget page.
Two of the included widgets, Text and RSS, can be replicated several times.
Below the palette you will find forms to change the number of Text and RSS
widgets available. Reducing the number will only cause the extra widgets to be
removed from the visual interface; the contents of the widgets is preserved.
= What if I don't like Kubrick? =
You should. He was a visionary film producer. You are entitled to your opinion,
however, so we'll give you a little tutorial on fixing up other themes.
= How do I fix up my theme? =
First you have to ask yourself, "Do I know anything about my theme? Does it use
an unordered list to create the sidebar?" (If you can't answer that, you'll
need in-depth help on this task and that means either paying somebody a lot of
money. Better yet, you can learn HTML. Sorry, we don't teach that here.)
Here is an example of good sidebar markup:
`

About

This is my blog.

Links

`
Notice that the entire sidebar is an unordered list and the titles are in `

`
tags. Not every theme is built this way and it's not necessary to do so, but
it's the simplest, most common, most semantically correct and the most widget-
friendly sidebar markup there is. The element with id="links" is the equivalent
of one basic widget.
When activated, the Dynamic Sidebar plugin gives you a few functions to use in
your template just like template tags. These functions let WordPress replace
your theme's sidebar with a dynamic one while still falling back on the old
sidebar in case you deactivate the plugin or remove all the widgets.
Here is an example of a basic sidebar upgrade using the same markup as above:

About

This is my blog.

Links

See? We just added two lines to the template and now it'll display a dynamic
sidebar if possible, otherwise display the old sidebar. Disabling the plugin
or removing all the widgets from the sidebar in the admin interface will cause
the old sidebar to be displayed.
Now there is one more thing to be done to the theme. Assuming you are using
WordPress 2.0 or higher, this change will be made within functions.php in your
theme's directory. (WordPress 1.5 users: we don't encourage people to use
WordPress 1.5 anymore, so you won't find any help here. We don't even know if
it's possible because it hasn't been tested.)
Here is an example of functions.php for a theme that does not yet have such a
file (no blank lines at the beginning or end of the file, please):
`
`
That's it, just four lines. This code tells the plugin that your theme will need
exactly one dynamic sidebar. At this point, your admin interface should have an
extra item in the Presentation menu: Sidebar Widgets. Try dragging some widgets
from the palette on the left into the box marked Sidebar 1 and saving your
changes. Got it working? Fantastic.
= My Sidebar isn't a list. What do I do? =
We knew you'd ask that. You'll have to discover your sidebar's design pattern,
then use some extra parameters to tell the plugin how to format them to work
with your theme. We'll work through one example.
Here's the original markup:
`

'after_widget' => '', // Removes

'before_title' => '

', // Replaces

'after_title' => '

About

This is my blog.

Links

`
That's it. Your HTML markup is taken care of.
Well, mostly taken care of. The default `before_widget` is a little bit more than
just `

`. It includes an id and class. Well, sort of, but this is where it gets
complicated. The default `before_widget` includes sprintf directives `%1$s` and `%2$s`,
which are replaced by the id and class, respectively. The id is generated by
sanitizing the widget name (which is why you should name your widget carefully:
you don't want duplicate id's in one HTML document!) and the class is generated
from the widget's callback. This ensures all Text and RSS widgets, for instance,
have unique id's and similar classnames. Additionally, there is a "widget" class
for each widget.
So, if you want your theme to be most flexible you should use this instead of
the empty strings shown above:
`
'before_widget' => '

',
'after_widget' => '

';
`
Now your HTML markup is REALLY taken care of.
= The Seach Widget is ugly. I want my theme's original search box as a widget. =
That's not a question, but it is a frequently formed comment, so we'll respond anyway.
The widgets are CSS-selectable so that you can style them very specifically.
However, the markup might not be to your liking. Many themes will look better
if they supply their own widgets to replace some of the basic widgets, such as
Search and Meta. It's usually best to copy the existing markup from sidebar.php
into a new widget in functions.php, then use the registration functions to
replace the standard widget with the custom one.
You can do this with any part of the theme's sidebar, or all of them. Here's an
example of how to do this:
`
function widget_mytheme_search() {
?>
<< PASTE YOUR SEARCH FORM HERE >>
Hello, World!
` tags or a button to submit the form.
* Namespace your form elements so they don't conflict with other widgets.
* Each widget must have a unique name. You can replace an already-registered
widget by registering another one with the same name, supplying your own
callback.
* Any extra arguments to `register_sidebar_widget()` or `register_widget_control()`
will be passed to your callback. See the Text and RSS widgets for examples.
* Any widget or control can be "unregistered" by passing an empty string to the
registration function.
* There are some undocumented functions. You are encouraged to read the source
code and see how we've created the standard widgets using these functions.
* Please test your widgets with several themes other than Classic and Default
(they both use the ul/li/h2 markup).
* Please audit the security of your widgets before distributing them.
* If you would like your widget to be considered for use on WordPress.com, send
a link (no attachments please) to widgets@wordpress.com and we'll have a look.